Shit that Pissed me off – 1/16

Pope Says we Shouldn’t Insult Others’ Faith

I know this new Pope is cool and all but he seems to be swayed by Bill Donahue and the Catholic league in regards to Charlie Hebdo.  This week he has suggested that freedom of expression should be limited when it is directed at religion.  He stopped short of blaming the victim, as Donahue did, so full credit for avoiding that rhetorical pitfall.

Now I understand there need to be certain limits to freedom of expression.  If your idea of freedom of expression is to get pictures of yourself peeing on local sports players in the middle of a game, that shouldn’t be allowed.

If, however, you want to make a cartoon criticizing religion or, as I do, regularly criticize religion in a blog, that freedom should absolutely be allowed and welcomed.

For instance, here is a drawing I made of Mohammed moving a mountain WITH HIS MIND!!!!

Religion is an institution.  Like politics. Nobody argues that we should stop making fun of politicians because we might offend someone who voted for them, do they?

Yet a religion should be afforded a special right?  We should limit those who would make fun of religion because…why?  God can’t take it?  Mohammed can’t take it?

Sorry, Francis.  Charlie Hebdo’s satire may not be your cup of tea but freedom of expression means they have as much right to do what they do as you have to criticize it.

The 2015 Oscar Nominations are Out and They Are…Interesting

The beauty of the Oscar nominations is every year there is something that will annoy everyone.

The big question this year is how The LEGO Movie somehow missed being nominated for Best Animated Feature.  While most folks I know were surprised by how good the film turned out to be, the Academy apparently enjoyed Box Trolls a little bit more.

And while the movie was not good enough, it seems, the repetitive earworm “Everything is Awesome” was totally good enough for Best Song.

Also, Academy, I know you love Meryl Streep.  I do too.  She’s a great actress.

But she’s not great in every single goddamn movie she’s ever been in.  Let’s take Into the Woods as an example.  She doesn’t even give the best performance in that film.

And finally, it is nice that Selma got a Best Picture nomination and all but how odd the cast and director weren’t good enough.  When you have an opportunity to nominate a woman of color for Best Director (because she did a good job), why would you fail to do so?

More than ever, the directing category seems reserved for white men.  In an industry as stereotypically liberal as the film industry, it is still just a little bit surprising.

Church Cancels a Funeral at the Last Minute when they Suddenly Realize the Deceased was a Lesbian

New Hope Ministries in Colorado kicked mourners out about fifteen minutes prior to the ceremony, which I think we all must agree is a dick move.

I don’t know if they prayed on the decision prior to telling the mourners that their loved one was such a completely horrible person that god insisted her lifeless body be removed from the church immediately.  God failed to strike the casket with lighting or inflict the grieving spouse with a plague of boils so it must be assumed that his position on the matter was…unclear.

I mean, god gave the Egyptians boils for enslaving the Jews. Given being gay, apparently, is so much worse, why not try it on gay people?

How does this fall into the category of hating the sin and loving the sinner?  The church has declined to comment, which is probably a good thing because there is nothing they can say short of “holy fuck are we sorry we were such self-righteous assholes” that would actually make them sound good.

Instead, they will continue to despise homosexuals to the point that the corpse of an openly gay individual will be considered too sinful to darken their doors.  And all they while they will insist they don’t really hate gays at all and why won’t we stop calling them bigots and homophobes?

Wrestling Coach Blames Feminists For the Fact his Son Raped Someone

As a father of two boys, I often wonder what I would do if either of them was accused of rape.  I would still love them but rape is an abhorrent and nearly unforgivable act.  Would I deny the boys I love were capable of such a thing?

I don’t know the answer to that question and I hope I never will.  I’m doing everything I can to raise my boys to be decent men.

This dude, though, is pretty much in complete denial.

He is convinced his son did nothing wrong and angry at the idea that women are insisting on bodily autonomy.  When reading over his angry blog posts, I think what comes through loud and clear is the idea that women don’t really get raped.  They just accuse boys of rape in some sort of power game.

At what point will this society stop treating rape victims as criminals?  It is no wonder so many rapes go unreported because the trauma our society inflicts on victims who choose to come forward is almost worse than the trauma inflicted by their attacker.

Boko Haram Can Slaughter Civilians by the Thousands and Apparently we Don’t Care

I’m not trying to create a false equivalence here but I think we have a major disconnect when we all (rightly) freak out when extremists kill a bunch of cartoonists but we aren’t phased when a different group of extremists kill a whole lot more ordinary people.  I suppose the difference is the statement being made.

One is an attack on free speech, something we Americans take very seriously. The other just seems more like an attack on an enemy.  I mean sure, the enemy isn’t armed so it would be wrong to call what is going on a “war” since it is really just a “slaughter” but at least those civilians would still have freedom of speech if they were still alive!

In Nigeria, you can say whatever you want before Boko Haram kills you. FREEDOM OF SPEECH!

Boko Haram also strapped a bomb to a ten year old girl and blew her up in a crowded marketplace this week.

We aren’t pitching a fit about that either, though, because she was just exercising her right to bear arms, right?

Preacher Saved a Child By Beating the Shit out of Him

Hey Francis – can I make fun of this guy’s religion?  I mean, I feel like it’s OK to make a few jokes at the expense of a dude who punched a kid because he didn’t believe in god enough.

Does he punch everything that doesn’t believe in god enough?  Does he punch gay people for being gay?  Does he punch old Jewish people because they aren’t Christian?  Does he punch his wife because any asshole who will proudly declare from the pulpit that he beats up little kids probably also beats up his wife?

Can I make fun of a religion when people use it to justify child abuse?

I just don’t feel like I need to be respectful of this guy or what he believes.  Am I missing something?